1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rectifier assembly for an AC generator for use with vehicles and more particularly to a rectifier assembly having a construction suitable for being built into an AC generator for use with automobiles.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a conventional rectifier assembly built into an AC generator for use with vehicles as shown in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 7131/72, the rectifiers are connected through electrically conductive thin plates fixed by thermo-compression bonding to an insulating base plate provided on a heat radiating plate thereby to economize and simplify the wiring of the rectifiers. But automobiles generally allow only a small space for mounting the AC generator so that the generator is required to be miniaturized so that it may be contained in such a small space in an automobile. Although the aforementioned structure dispenses with lead wires for interconnecting electrodes of the rectifiers it is required to form a layer of pre-impregnated material, referred to hereinafter as "prepreg", to hermetically seal the rectifiers made of semiconductor material because the rectifiers would otherwise be exposed to the exterior. Thus, the whole rectifier assembly is necessarily made to have a thickness of 5 to 10 mm and cannot be satisfactorily miniaturized. In addition, the heat radiating plate is made of two arcuate radiating members juxtaposed on the same plane with interposition of an insulating base plate and a metal plate in the form of a horseshoe configuration and hence is not so strong mechanically as may be used under severe operating conditions as in vehicles. For these reasons, there is a great demand for a compact, strong and easy-to-handle rectifier assembly.